The present invention generally relates to the art of barbecuing, and more particularly to the use of wood chips or the like with a barbecue grill to enhance the flavor of barbecued foods.
It has long been known that the taste of barbecued food can be enhanced by exposing the food to smoke produced by heating wood chips or particulates, or the like. It is also known that more pronounced flavors can be obtained by first soaking the wood material in water, or other liquids, such as wine, beer, or whiskey, before exposing the wood material to heat. The soaking causes the wood material to smolder rather than burst into flames, thereby generating more smoke for flavoring the food. Various food flavoring effects of smoking can be achieved by using different types of wood. For example, heavy woods, like mesquite and pecan wood, have a stronger smoke flavor than fruit woods, such as apple and cherry.
Producing smoke-infused grilled foods is typically achieved in a charcoal grill by adding soaked wood chips or particulates directly to heated barbecue coals under the cooking grate upon which food is cooked. The smoke produced by the smoldering chips or particulates rises up through the grate and around the food supported thereby to efficiently smoke the food. However, for gas cooking grills, where there are no coals onto which soaked wood chips or particulates can be placed, smoking food becomes more of a challenge. For gas grills, smoker boxes or trays for wood chips have heretofore been placed on the cooking grate or built into the gas grill. In one known gas grill, a smoker special is provided that sets into an opening at the side of the cooking grate above a burner that is dedicated to heating the smoker box.
The drawback of prior art smoker box arrangements for gas grills is that the smoker box is not located where it can most advantageously smoke the food: directly below the cooking grate with the food being cooked thereon. Indeed, smoke produced from a smoker box set on top of the cooking grate is often ineffective in imparting any flavoring to the food, because the smoke is not circulated around the food. The ability to place smoker boxes at an advantageous position below the grate is inhibited by the fact that there is little space to do so. Gas grills typically include a series of burner tubes covered by heat deflector bars typically having an inverted V-shape, all of which are positioned just below the cooking grate. Modern gas grills are typically designed so that the burners and deflectors are as close to the cooking grate as practicable to maximize the heat at the cooking grate, leaving no space for a smoker box.
The present invention overcomes the drawbacks of conventional approaches to smoking foods cooked on gas grills by providing an improved smoker box capable holding an adequate quantity of soaked wood chips or particulate and yet capable of placement within the limited space between the cooking grate and heat deflector bars, so the smoker box emits smoke from a position immediately below food placed on the cooking grate.